Retired Senior Police Officers Protest Poor Payment in Niger, Edo

Retired Senior Police Officers Protest Poor Payment in Niger, Edo

By Laleye Dipo in Minna Adibe Emenyonu

Scores of ex-policemen yesterday in Minna Niger State embarked on a peaceful protest and demanded for their exit from the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS).
Similarly, activities at the Edo State Police Command headquarter, Benin City were temporarily halted yesterday , following a protest by retired senior police officers over alleged poor remuneration, calling on the police authority to remove them from the police contributory pension scheme to the old scheme of the police force.

The protest in Minna March started from the Police Officers Mess at about 9.45 am taking the protesters through the government house road to the Police headquarters, a distance of about one kilometer.

They carried different banners with inscription such as ” CPS is a death Sentence”, Pension Scheme: No AGM, No

Dividend” among others in addition to singing solidarity songs.

At the police headquarters the protesters were not allowed entry into the premises but were received by the Deputy Commissioner of Police Shehu Abdullahi in company with a handful of other senior officers.

Their spokesman CSP Madu Danbuwa, before presenting a letter containing their demands for onward transmission to the Inspector General of Police, said they decided to embark on the peaceful protests after the authorities have ignored previous representations made to the authorities on their plight.

Danbuwa explained that after majority of them had put in not less than 35 years service to the country they were given only a paltry N1.9 million as gratuity, adding that none of them receives a monthly pension of more than N40,000. whereas some of their colleagues in other security outfits collects 100 per cent of their salaries monthly after leaving service.

He claimed that many of them have not been able to meet their commitments to their families and other social needs saying “even electricity and water bills we cannot pay”.

One Hajara among the retirees speaking in similar vein said most of them have died

because ” we cannot afford our medical bills” disclosing also that ” we have aged parents that we cannot care for, this is unfair

“We want to totally exit the CPS” Hajara said.

Addressing the protesters, DCP Shehu Abdullahi sympathised with the retirees saying ” we are all victims, because one day we will retire and join you

“I have received your letter I can assure you that we will send it to the Inspector General of Police before the end of this week” Abdullahi assured.

The DCP, who apologised to the protesters for the inability of the State Commissioner of Police to personally receive them because ” He (CP) has gone to Kagara, commended them for their peaceful conduct and pleaded that they should return to their homes peacefully”.

Meanwhile, the retired senior police officers in Edo said they deserved better treatment after giving their productive years to the service of Nigeria.

Speaking on behalf of the protesting senior citizens, Chairman of the Edo State Police Senior Officers Retirees, Anthony Nnachor, who said he retired as a Superintendent of Police (SP), noted that police retirees remained the least paid among all the security agencies.

He said whereas the police is the lead security agency in Nigeria, their welfare is nothing to write home about.

Nnachor alleged that their promotion allowance for 2017 and resettlement allowances have not been paid till date, a situation he described as the “highest form of injustice and inhuman treatment”.

He therefore, appealed to the federal government to review the police scheme with a view to returning their pension scheme to the police-defined benefit of the old.

Responding to the protesters, the Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of Operations Edo State command Mr. Miller Dantawaye, said the current serving police men share from their pains and maintained that the commissioner of police Philip Ogbadu would channel their grievance to the police force headquarters Abuja.

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